Author: Kevin Diestelow

Kevin Diestelow is a historian of political thought and the American Revolution. His research examines the pursuit of happiness in the Founding Era. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from William & Mary and will receive his Master’s Degree in May 2026. Prior to entering graduate school, he worked at a government relations firm in Washington, D.C.

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Critical Thinking Posted on

The Odyssey and Irrelevance of John Adams

John Adams is a singular figure in the history of the American Revolution. No founder contributed more to the Revolution while drawing less attention from future generations, both historians and the public, searching for meaning in the American Revolution. Throughout his life Adams was aware of his reputation—“obnoxious, suspected and unpopular”—and the impact it would […]

by Kevin Diestelow
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Money and the Making of the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: Money and the Making of the American Revolution by Andrew David Edwards (Princeton University Press, 2025). $35.00 hardcover In 1953, Edmund and Helen Morgan published The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution, a pathbreaking study of the earliest days of the imperial crisis which preceded the American Revolution.[1] Their contention, that the conflict […]

by Kevin Diestelow
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The American Revolution at 250

BOOK REVIEW: The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding edited by Francis D. Cogliano (University of Virginia Press, 2026) $32.95 hardcover The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution has engendered a crowded commemorative landscape. This volume, The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding is University of Virginia […]

by Kevin Diestelow
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Critical Thinking Posted on

The Fort Wilson Riot and Pennsylvania’s Republican Formation

“There has been hell to pay in Philadelphia,” exclaimed Samuel Shaw, referring to the Fort Wilson Riot of October 4, 1779 in a letter to Winthrop Sargent.[1] The riot was the culmination of three years of factional political tension within the city of Philadelphia. Members of the city’s “lower sort,” nominally backed by politically powerful men […]

by Kevin Diestelow